Free Worlds of Obsession (Celtic Otherworlds) by Kella McKinnon

Somehow, she knew that was his name, just as she knew he was the one she wanted so badly to escape from.
                  He smiled at her, but it was not a friendly smile.  It was more cold and calculating in nature.  Perhaps not exactly evil, but not entirely good, either.  “Karis darling, you have found me at last.”  He took a few steps towards her, smiling.
                  “I… I wasn’t looking for you.  I never am.”  Karis?  He had never called her a name before in any of the other dreams, and Karis wasn’t her name.  Maybe you could have a different name in your dream… she’d never considered that before. 
    Something flitted at the edge of her mind like a distant memory on butterfly wings, but before she could catch hold of it, Balor spoke again and it was gone.
    “Have you had enough of this wandering, my beauty?  Are you finally ready to give in to me?”  He took another few steps toward her, and she stumbled back.  It would be so easy to go to him and step into his embrace.  It would be warm and solid.  Then she could finally rest.  Then she could finally stop running.  But there was a reason… a reason not to give in… a reason why she needed to keep wandering these halls instead… what was it?  She looked wildly around the room, as if the answer would come to her somehow.   Her mind felt foggy, and her frustration mounted until she could no longer hold it back.  “No” she hissed at him.  “I’ll never give in to you!”  Somehow she knew this wasn’t the first time she had said those words to him, and it probably wouldn’t be the last.
                  Balor was, predictably, not pleased with her answer.  His body seemed to grow larger right before her eyes, and his pupils began to glow like two embers from a fire.  “My patience grows thin, female”, he growled.  “He waits no longer for you, don’t you know that?  There is nothing to prevent you from becoming my bride. Nothing! Mark my words… if you will not belong to me, then you will belong to no one!” 
                  He changed again, appearing now more like a beast than a man.  Were those horns growing out of his head?  Oh, yes… he was a Demon, after all.   This was a dream, so of course anything was possible.  His huge body loomed over her, but Liv stood her ground despite the fear beating in her chest.  He wants to make me afraid… to control me… but I won’t let him!  Just as the creature reached for her with fingers that had now become more like claws, she woke up with a little cry. 
    For a long moment Liv was relieved to have left the nightmare behind, but even though the fear subsided and her breaths slowed, her relief lasted only until she opened her eyes.  She sat up in the bed with a gasp and her gaze flew around the unfamiliar surroundings. 
    She was not in her apartment.  She wasn’t in her room at the hotel.  Where … 
    Then it all came back to her with the suddenness of a high speed train , and she gasped a second time.  The attack in the alley… the man who saved her… the body that disappeared into the garbage-strewn pavement as if it never was… 
    What the hell?  
    And where was she?  How had she gotten here?  Try as she might, she had no memory past the man in black leather telling her she needed to go with him.  Evidently… she had done just that.  No wait, she remembered getting into his car… The question was, had she escaped trouble, or found more of it?  Time to find out.
                  Liv swung her legs over the side of the bed, but when she tried to stand up, a wave of dizziness made her sit right back down.  It passed quickly, but the woozy feeling in her head, combined with the fact that she couldn’t remember where she was or how she got here, made her realize she must have been drugged.  And the only one who could have done it was the man who saved her ass in the